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THPart 2 | The Double Slit Experiment
When particles like electrons or photons are fired one at a time toward a barrier with two slits, they create an interference pattern on the detector screen, just as waves would. This suggests that each particle passes through both slits simultaneously, behaving like a wave. But the crazy part is that if scientists place a detector to observe which slit the particle goes through, the interference pattern disappears, and they behave like discrete particles!!!
This experiment showcases the strange nature of quantum mechanics, where the act of measurement affects the system, forcing it to "choose" between wave-like and particle-like behavior.
The original double-slit experiment with light was first conducted by Thomas Young in 1801, demonstrating that light behaves as a wave by producing interference patterns. However, the quantum version, showing that particles like electrons also exhibit wave-like behavior, was developed much later.
That happened in 1927 when physicist Clinton Davisson and Lester Germer (and independently George Paget Thomson) conducted experiments proving that electrons diffract like waves, confirming Louis de Broglie’s 1924 hypothesis that matter has wave-like properties.
This work was pivotal in establishing wave-particle duality as a core principle of quantum mechanics.
Credit: https://youtu.be/x-BE8YkNzVg?si=raqNkeNbTX67xhUW
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